We are continuing our sermon series on Dynamic Discipleship. Last Sunday our theme was in the image of Charles Wesley’s hymn: “He breaks the power of cancelled sin.” The big word of that message was “Christ frees us from something - specifically, from meaninglessness, guilt, and death. Today, we pursue a variation on that theme. Christ not only frees us from something, He frees us to something.

Let’s begin by exploring our scripture lesson. Verse 1 of Galatians 5 is Paul’s Magna Charta of spiritual freedom. It is to such persons as we are - bound in bland conformity, rigid conventions and sterile artificialities, shackled by guilt which produces an inner rigidity and blocks growth and dynamic discipleship - it is to such persons as we are, smothered in our spiritual development, fettered …